XVIII. Earl of Cumberland. Psalm XXXVIII. Edward Farr, ed. 1847. Select Poetry, Chiefly Sacred, of the Reign of King James the First

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Edward Farr, ed. Select Poetry of the Reign of King James the First. 1847.

Psalm XXXVIII

XVIII. Earl of Cumberland


LORD, 1 chide me not in the tempestuous day
Of thy fierce wrath: O! cast me not away
In thy displeasure, least I fall at once!
Thy galling shafts lye quiuered in my bones.
Prest by thy heauy hand I gaspe for breath;	5
Thine anger breeds diseases more than death:
My flesh is mangled, and my bones within
Consume and melt, for anguish of my sinne.
My crying sinns above my head appeare,
(Too heauy a weight, alas! for me to beare,)	10
My mortal wounds gangrene and putrify,
And all because I have done foolishly!
Such misery and trouble I endure
As all day long I beg, and find no cure.
Lord, thou hast heard the ground of my complaint,	15
And while I prayed thine eyes have seen me faint,
My heart to beate and all my strength quite gone,
Mine eyes, with weeping, blind as any stone;
My friends, my neighbours, kinred, stand at gaze,
While I in fires of persecution blaze:	20
And those that sought my life in ambush lay,
Cursing and lying, railing all the day.
But I was stupid as the deaf and dumb,
From whose shut doors no sharp reproofes do come;
And yet I hope, though I thus silent be,	25
Thou, Lord, wilt plague and answer them for me.
Lord, I have praid that this malitious traine,
May never flowte me (in thine anger slaine).
Those, those I meane, that were delighted all
To see me slip, and hope to see me fall.	30
But O my sinne, that now tormenteth more
My soule than all the paines my body bore,
And now stands staring in my blushing face!
But, Lord, I will confess, and beg thy grace.
And yet my haters liue in height and power,	35
Not to be numbred, that would me devoure:
All those that for my good repaid me ill
Detest me more, submitted to thy will.
Lord! leaue me not, but make me thine abode;
Oh haste to helpe, my Saviour, oh my God!	40

Note 1. XVIII. Earl of Cumberland.—In the Bodleian Library is a MS. entitled, “Poetical Translations of some Psalms, and the Song of Solomon, with other Divine Poems. By that noble and religious soule, now sainted in heaven, the right honourable Henry, Earl of Cumberland, Lord Clifford, Vipont, Brumflet and Vessey, Lord of Westmoreland, and of the Honour of Skipton.” Henry Clifford, the fifth and last Earl of Cumberland, who wrote this MS., was born in 1591, and died at York, in December 1643. The MS. is in quarto, and contains thirty-eight leaves; comprising sixteen Psalms in metre; David’s Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan; The Song of Solomon, in eight chapters; An Historical Meditation upon the Birth, Life, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ; and Meditations upon the Holy Days of our Calendar. [back]

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